The Ukrainians are complaining of serious difficulties while obtaining visas to Europe

The Ukrainians are massively being refused schengen visas, despite the promises of the Ukrainian government to ensure visa free regime. The Europeans therefore try to protect themselves from potential illegal labour, as the Ukrainians are used to going abroad for work.

It has become much more difficult for Ukrainian residents to get a schengen visa, according to the newspaper “Vesti”. “Some consulatesrequire more documents and refuse visasmore often, referring to “theunfoundedpurpose of the trip” mentioned in the visa application form, or give visasfor a minimum period“, arepresentativeof a visa intermediator firm says.

According to him,evenshopping visa to Poland (it is issuedin the Western regions) now requiresa large package of documents, including a bank statement.

The expert on EuropeanpoliticsOlegKravchenkonoted that the number of the Ukrainians who were refused a visa without any explanation has significantly increased. “Most of the refusals are coming from South European countrieswith high unemployment, asthey are trying to protect themselves frompotential cheap labour workers,”the expert said.

According to the statistics, the consulates of Spain, Portugal andGreece, wherethe Ukrainiansare massively used to going for work, haveincreased a number of refusals by abouttwo times. It is difficultto obtain visas to richer countrieslikeBelgium,Finland, or Sweden. However, it is relatively easy to obtain schengen visas in theconsulatesofLatvia and Lithuania.

The newspaper’s sourcesin the Consulate Generalof Polandin Lvivsaythatin recent months they have decided to decrease a number of issued visas “to the minimum“. “The main reason is that after the flow of Syrian refugees to Europe, the Polesare unlikely to issue a lot of visas. Moreover,life in Ukraineis getting worse, the Donbassconflicthas not ended yet,many peoplein Poland are worried about the flow of migrantsfrom Ukraine. The Polish authorities arenot enthusiastic aboutpromisesof visa free regime.”